In this episode Shahriar takes a close look at one of Keysight (Agilent) InfiniMax III active probes. The model N2802A offers 25GHz of analog bandwidth, 17.5pS of rise time and a total differential input capacitance of 32fF at 10k-Ohm input impedance. The front-end amplifier of this active probe is designed in an in-house InP process, the same process responsible for the front-end of the X-Series Keysight oscilloscopes.

The teardown of the probe shows the control circuitry in the main probe body built around a PIC 16F877 microcontroller coupled to a DAC, EEPROM memory and various high-current and precision op-amps for biasing. The main front-end microwave module reveals the InP ASIC and supporting microwave circuity. There seems to be a dual-path design to provide a large DC common-mode offset capability as well as a high-bandwidth.

Mike is the founder and editor of Electronics-Lab.com, an electronics engineering community/news and project sharing platform. He studied Electronics and Physics and enjoys everything that has moving electrons and fun. His interests lying on solar cells, microcontrollers and switchmode power supplies. Feel free to reach him for feedback, random tips or just to say hello :-)

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